Welcome back Hostel Road Trip podcast fans.
We're here in Guadalajara, Mexico at the Boho Hostel with the owner Roberto.
And we're super excited to get this show back on the road.
And we're super excited to hear about how you came to create this place and your journey of hostiling in its own.
And just from sitting in here, this is what I almost classify as a poshtel.
It's so nice, you know, and you have that higher level of service,
which is so exciting to see throughout the industry and going on.
But Roberto, to kind of start off, how did you get into hostiling?
Well, first of all, thanks for having me. It's the first time I ever do a podcast.
Alright.
This is fun, it's exciting.
How did it start? I think it was, it's a family business.
It was mostly like my long-term dream to have a hostel, to work kind of in the hospitality industry.
But mostly hostels, because they're very different from hotels and the rest of the categories from hospitality.
I think it all started, this is kind of a fun story, the first hostel I went to was in London.
I was like 10 years, that was in 2006.
How old were you?
Like 10 or 9 years old.
You were 10? Okay.
We were traveling with the family.
We were staying in like very cheap hotels and accommodations.
But it was like the last week, and of course, I was paying for the whole family, my sister and my mom.
So he was like, no, no, so expensive.
So the only option we have is a hostel.
My mom was like, no way, you're not saying we're not saying a hostel.
She's never been to a hostel, but there's like a private plantation here in Mexico.
That's why we're doing the podcast.
Yeah, yeah. Cool.
Yeah, yeah, that's it.
And I still remember that place, it was called Picadilly Backpackers.
Okay.
So we went to like this very sketchy old building.
And I remember the first day I was arriving there, there was like these guys playing Gamecube.
And some other guys playing the guitar.
I was like, wow, this place is so cool.
And my parents back then, they were younger.
And everyone was like, oh, it's so cool.
You're traveling with your family.
You have some kids.
So ever since, we kind of switch our, the way we used to see hostels.
And from then on, every time we travel, we only stay in hostels.
I love that so much.
I often call it popping someone's hostel cherry in that way of their first experience.
And it's so important.
If a family comes into a hostel like this, or a first time backpacker comes into a hostel of this quality,
I feel like we win them forever.
Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Because there is such a bad stigma, especially in America.
Especially in America.
Hostels are the worst, the movies they made with that, the horror movies, just set us back decades.
So it's frustrating at times.
But the genesis of this podcast was to share all of the awesome locations and experiences of owners that have opened up hostels
so that people can become more aware of them and we can break down those stigmas.
Because we're confident, just as I'm sure you are, from your own experience and now from providing that experience,
that we can break down those barriers.
And once they do come in, they're more than likely to stop looking at hotels and start looking at hostels.
So that's so cool that you got exposed to it at a young age.
And I love that you highlight that it is something that families can travel in.
And it can be a great experience for young people to see all the different cultures and different things,
open their eyes to so many things.
Now, when did that lead you to, when did this location open up?
This opened in 2019.
Just right before the pandemic? Wow!
October. So we were just brand new. We opened five months later. We had to close.
Was it a hostel before?
No, no, no, no. This was like some warehouse or something.
No, it was like a tonnery office. It was kind of very old.
So you did everything, remodeled everything.
And that, you know, that's a great topic because I know a lot of fellow hostel owners will listen to this
and know the struggle you went through.
But to take on a project like this where this isn't just like a house where you're through a few bunk beds
and this is a massive commercial renovation.
How many bunks are in here? How many?
Bunk beds.
How many heads can you fit? What's your output?
I think the maximum is like 62.
We also have like private rooms.
You have a nice mixture. So you have suites, privates.
And dorms. There are mostly dorms. We only have three suites, five privates and 12 dorms.
That mix is so important to know of though because I feel like a lot of, especially Americans,
are hesitant to try maybe because they don't want to do the shared accommodation of the dorm.
But the private room, now they can have that in the experience.
So I love to see the mix in your accommodations to allow that.
But 2019, you go through this massive investment renovation and then you have to shut down.
Kudos to you for making through it.
But tell us a bit about that experience of like going through the pandemic after just opening.
I was saying, you're bobbying, right?
I was telling you earlier that it was not too bad.
We had to close for two months.
And of course, everyone was, it was total, no one knew what was going to happen next.
It was just like uncertainty.
But then the borders, Mexican borders were never closed for the tourists.
I think we were the only country in the world.
So there was many people that have never come to Mexico before, mostly Europeans.
They were so tired of being quarantined for months.
So for the first two months, we could only, the government only allowed us to open 50% of the capacity.
And of course we had all the safety.
Yeah.
But we never had like an inspection.
They were telling us that we were going to have like once a week.
Nothing happened.
So we were trying like, okay, we can chill out.
And then we opened to the full capacity, I believe, four months later.
It was full for the rest of the year.
And it was, for me personally, it was very beautiful, interesting, experiencing the relief of the people coming from countries where it was like so intense.
So what's the word?
Restricted.
Restricted, yeah.
And coming here, they felt like free.
They were like, yeah, let's go to tequila.
Let's have some shots upstairs.
We want a beer.
No one was wearing a face mask.
Let's go out, chapultepe, walk.
For them it was like, wow, two days ago I was in my house.
You cannot go out anywhere.
And this is kind of surreal because it's totally different.
But I saw a lot of happy faces and people like almost crying when they arrived here.
What was the inspiration for this place?
Like it's a beautiful facility you designed.
Did you have a background in hospitality or design?
Tell us how you kind of went through that process.
Yeah, well, I'm an artist.
I'm a sculptor.
But this was mostly the projects mostly my sister and I.
She lives now off-grid.
She's like an aunt girl.
She likes to live on the farm.
You can see there's a lot of plants.
We knew the place, the property was not too big.
So at the beginning we thought it was just going to be like two levels, some dorms, a nice roofed up kitchen.
That's it.
So this, as I said, it's a family project.
But then more family joined as investors.
So it grew more than what I expected.
But I was only, always my sister Paloma and myself, we're the ones who are going to manage it and be in charge of it.
So she was here for the first two years and then she's like, I hate the city.
I love being there, but she has her own project.
Inspiration was like making kind of a safe place, a comfortable place, kind of an oasis inside of the center of the second biggest city in Mexico.
So a place where you can come and relax.
It's not a party hostel.
At the beginning we thought of making like a party hostel, but there's more hostels, party hostels very close from here.
So we said like, why don't we change to like a different concept to make it like more laid back, chill.
It's going to be clean, but it's not going to be, it's social.
Every hostel has to be social, but it's not the place where it's going to be loud music and people getting drunk at 4 a.m.
Way easier to host and operate that kind of hostel.
First year was kind of a party hostel.
We found that.
You're not going to last if you do that.
We found the party will come anyway.
The people will have a good time anyway.
If you force the party, sometimes you can get out of control and it just turns into a headache right now.
There's a lot of good places around.
The best city where the nightlife is, so if you want to party, just walk one block away from here.
Reflecting on it, like what would you, what advice would you give to the next person that maybe in your shoes that was trying to make a hostel like this with their family?
Or what did you learn during that process that you could pass on?
Wow, working with a family was a more, the hardest thing.
That's challenging.
Challenging for my parents, my sister and I, like it was very challenging, but in a way it makes us like more close together.
Working together, it was very hard.
The ones that make it through it are tighter.
In those situations, family or not, friends or just business, those early struggles, you either fall apart or you fight through.
But if you get through, then you are struggling for it.
I'm very happy.
The end result, yeah, the result was way much better than I expected.
It was beautiful.
Beautiful facility.
My advice would be, I think I did a very good partnership with my sister because she's more like in the administrative area.
She compliments you.
She compliments, that's the thing.
Like asking for help and not doing everything by your own, like compliments.
I'm more the social side.
We work with volunteers.
I like to be in reception, getting to know the guests, everyone.
She was more like numbers and control and everything that I'm not that person, but it was good.
Because as a business, you need both.
You need both.
You need a good partner.
Front of the curtain and the back of the curtain.
Both equally important, but a lot of times someone has one and not the other.
If this was by myself, it wouldn't be.
How about the cafe side?
Do you guys run that internally?
Do you outsource that?
Internally as well.
We just opened a year ago.
What have you learned from having a cafe in the hostel?
A lot of hostels have it, some don't have it.
Obviously running a food business is tough.
It is tough.
I wasn't expecting to be...
It's a lot more challenges.
It is.
I thought it was going to be just selling coffee and breakfast.
Man, it's...
So hard to turn the proper, not lose money.
Yeah.
And you got to be there.
It's very demanding.
Right.
But the first months were kind of slow, now it's getting better.
It is like a good compliment as well.
There's a lot of people that are like...
Do you get outside people that come in for you?
Yeah.
Everyone in the mornings were asking us...
We had like the free coffee filter.
Filter?
Yeah.
But people were asking me like, oh, you should sell me like a sandwich, some breakfast, whatever.
Listen to what they want, right?
Yeah, exactly.
So, but yeah, it's been quite much more complicated than what I expected.
Do you find that like the...
You guys sell alcohol too or...?
Just beer.
We only have license for low...
Low alcohol content.
Yeah.
And do you find it very profitable and outsiders come drink?
Like some hostels they find they make more money, maybe more of a party hostel, from the alcohol than the beds.
But where do you...?
The thing is that in this area there's a lot of bars.
We were also thinking about instead of a cafe opening a bar upstairs, but that's the thing.
We don't have much of a space.
Yeah, it's a totally different like energy vibe to it because...
I don't know.
I like more the idea of coffee in the mornings.
Now we're going to extend to also for lunch and dinner.
Yeah.
But yeah...
Easier to control that.
Yeah, it's easier to control and...
Yeah, there's so many bars around that we thought like no...
Why you compete with it.
Focus on having a great hostel.
Exactly.
And let them have a great bar.
I mean we sell beers, we make a bunch of activities where there's alcohol involved.
So people can have a great time.
If you want to bring your tequila because we don't sell like liquor, you can.
Right.
But yeah, it was...
So we decided not to go towards like party hostel and make it...
Oh yeah, and a lot of problems that can come with that.
Yeah.
But I noticed one of the first things when I walked in was I was taken back of like,
oh wow, this is a very nice facility, you know, feels to that level of a hotel grade.
But then I also saw that you had that nice activity wall.
Yeah.
Which is so crucial in a genuine authentic backpacker hostel.
Exactly.
Those social immersion activities and the pushing people together.
So it was really cool to see that you still kept that even though the facility
feels more at that higher end.
So I think that's a really cool new concept model that's happening a lot where you're
finding hostels getting nicer in quality, but they're still keeping their roots.
Yeah, exactly.
And it definitely... you've set up a nice vibe in here with...
you have that whole digital nomad, people working remotely.
And right away I could feel like, oh, this is a place where I could sit down and get
some work done as well, which helps you stay longer in the end.
So that's a beautiful thing that you've created here.
How about... how has this summer been in Guadalajara?
This summer?
Yeah, how was... coming off COVID, we have a place in Sailita and it was definitely...
seemed like it was a slower summer than obviously...
This was the lowest summer ever.
Right, I think everybody...
Cool down because everyone came in a rush right there.
Yeah.
At first, someone also told us that most of the tourism worldwide was concentrated in
Europe because it was... before COVID, the first year that it was like fully open,
no restrictions.
Yeah, yeah.
So I've seen a lot of people were traveling in Europe, different countries, but high season
of the year, especially... well, Mexico, especially when I had this winter time.
A month ago, we started being fully booked and now it's better.
Yeah, nice.
Yeah, summer was pretty...
What kind of... going into this year, what kind of travelers are you seeing?
Different kind of travelers?
Are you feeling a vibe?
Small kind of travelers, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
There's a thing with Mexican travelers.
They don't know the concept of a hostel.
Oh.
There's a lot of Mexicans that they book here.
They're paying a 250 pesos bunk bed.
When they arrive, they're like, no, no, no, I'm not sharing a dorm.
What's this?
Like, bro, you book a six-bed, share a dorm.
It's like, oh, what are you expecting for 250 pesos?
And they're like surprised and they're like, no, no, no, I need a refund.
Or some people are like, okay, I'm going to give it a chance.
And then they like it.
Right.
There's many Mexicans that are not aware of this concept or they don't...
There's many people they book and they're like...
Or they book a private room, expecting this to be a hotel.
And they're like, no, we're a hostel.
And we're like, what's a hostel?
Share a dorm, share an area.
Do you have a big seasonal difference?
Like we have a place in Sao Alita and in the wintertime, you get many Americans, Europeans, Canadians.
And in the summertime, you get many Mexican travelers.
Yeah, wintertime is people from colder countries that come to warmer winter here in Mexico.
Do you change your hosting styles, your activities that kind of cater to the culture, cultural norms?
Well, wintertime, it's more kind of a party.
Like from November, I think to Easter, it's where we mostly make like pop curls.
And it's more like these activities of party.
And for the rest of the year, they're like hiking.
Let's go for the waterfalls.
It gets so hot, you want to go somewhere outside of the city.
Let's go make a hike.
I don't know.
Maybe it does change, but it's...
What's your age demographic, you'd say?
Like range, do you have it?
I noticed we were staying in a dorm room upstairs and there was an older woman staying there.
And I always love to see the wide age range.
I love to see the older travelers and the younger travelers.
They're not very young.
I'd say mid-30s.
Mid-30s, yeah.
And I could see how this would create a comfortable space for them.
Maybe the party hostel has the younger crowd.
Do you offer co-living or do you guys dabble in the co-living space to try to have long-term people in the slumber season?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We've had people staying here for almost a year.
They become like part of a family.
They can also sometimes they're staying for long and we need volunteers.
So like, hey, you want to volunteer with us?
Nice transition.
Good exchange.
Any struggles with that in the long term co-living that you've come across with that or is that going pretty smooth for you?
Well, you always have.
Oh, eventually, yeah.
Complicated.
Being with people, you know, it's not easy.
But I've always found a way to communicate like, hey, it's not working anymore.
Thanks for your help.
I think you need a change to something.
It's never been too complicated.
Depending on how you have it.
I mean, you guys also work in hostels.
Oh, yeah.
You always have that one very complicated.
Guess that you're like, oh, it's part of it.
With all the beautiful ones.
Yeah, yeah.
It's most of the majority of great people.
Yeah.
And how about Guadalajara?
What is the big reason travelers come here?
What would you?
It's not a very I was born here.
It was not a very touristic city.
It started to be like 10 years ago.
I think mostly this area, the center, the historical center downtown, it's pretty.
It's nice, but it's not like super impressive.
But I think this area, Colonia Americana, was like an old houses.
They're starting.
They started to well, new year universities open.
So there was like more young people coming to downtown.
So music scene, culture, cafes, restaurants, hostels, start opening bars.
And I think the attraction, it could be also tequila.
It's very close to town.
There's many like cultural events.
It's not as expensive and crowded as Mexico City.
The food is good.
And one of the things that I found out is also as many people that come here and say,
because they found out that a girl from here.
Yeah, yeah.
That's great.
Come on.
That's been surprised.
Love is in the air.
Yeah, yeah.
There's a lot of the hostel, too.
Yeah, yeah.
Or people.
I don't know.
I feel like Guadalajara is a place where you can stay like four or five days and move somewhere
else, kind of towards the center, towards Puerto Vallarta, Sayulita.
But I found it interesting also people like staying for longer because I don't know.
They just like the city.
It's a big city, but it's very chill.
It doesn't feel like.
It's not overwhelming.
Exactly.
I mean, it could be if you're driving a car, if you're working here, but not as a tourist,
just walking around.
Yeah, it is very relaxing.
Yeah.
It's true.
And how about now kind of looking back, you know, five, pretty much five years in, is it
what you thought it was going to be, running a hostel, running a hostel?
I thought it was going to be more demanding.
It is.
I mean, sometimes, but it's fun for me.
Yeah.
I mean, I've traveled before here.
I've traveled.
I've been to many different hostels, so I kind of took ideas from different places.
I work in the hostel.
I also do volunteers in different countries.
So I kind of learned from different hostels.
And I thought that the side of being a, how do you say, the host was not going to be easy
for me.
It's been.
It came naturally.
Yeah.
That's good.
We always say to our managers, you're stressed out and you're not having fun.
Something's wrong.
Exactly.
Something's gone wrong because this is a fun job.
It is.
I find that it's fun.
And if you're doing it right, it should be very enjoyable and the exact opposite of your
cubicle.
So it's always glad to hear other people sharing that.
And we love that a lot of aspiring hostel owners listen to this podcast.
So it's always good for them to hear that too.
Sometimes you'll get an episode where the owner is crying into the microphone.
If I could take you back in a time machine.
I wouldn't do it.
Oh, God.
Shit.
It's good to hear that you are.
It's not for everyone.
It isn't for everyone.
And it can become challenging if you don't have good systems or the right attitude or
outlook on things or if you take things personally.
A lot of things can start to eat away at you.
How many volunteers do you have?
Usually around five.
And they live on site?
And you live on site?
No, not anymore.
Not anymore.
I used to sometimes, but not anymore.
You've got to separate.
For separation, yeah.
Yeah.
That's good that you get some space and balance and that will keep your longevity too.
You'll be able to do it longer.
For the detail, I feel like your hostel has so much great attention to detail and art
and stuff.
How do you prioritize that to keep it looking so good all the time?
We're always adding something new.
It's been four years, but for example, someone gave us that piggy thing, ceramic.
Yeah.
More pans keep coming.
The cafes used to be the living area.
There was another sofa.
Now it's gone.
We've always been constantly transforming the hostel.
The basement, when we just opened, it was empty.
It was mostly for storage rooms and we were not sure if we were making privates or dorms.
Now there are female dorms.
They've been there for a year, I think, in a TV area.
I don't know if you had a look down there.
I've been there, yeah.
That's also kind of new.
Every year we try to make something different.
That's awesome.
There's always so many people coming in your hostel, so it's slowly getting wear and tear.
If you're not constantly fixing it, keeping it up, refreshing it, adding new things, you
can quickly find your hostel slowly going down.
That's a great tip for hostel owners.
Even if it's a little thing each day or a little bit each week, just continuing to... You
said you were practicing sculpture.
I always refer to the hostel as a sculpture.
Yeah, it is.
This is a sculpture.
We're always kind of sanding it or polishing it or carving something out.
Constantly.
It's always something you can... Never ending.
Never ending.
Living and breathing beast.
Yeah, it is.
It's more fun and enjoyable when you continue to cultivate it because if you were coming
into the same exact place for five years, you'd become stagnant and then you'd become heartbroken
because that same exact place wouldn't look the same.
It would be broken down.
It would be not what it was.
I think that's great advice to keep your passion up.
Keep your passion in it is by keeping that cultivation going.
You said you were an artist before and you can definitely see it within the bones of
your building because the little touches, the details are also very nice.
Where do you want to go from here?
Are you going to open another place?
Do you want to just make this place better?
For now, it is.
What's on the future for you?
I would love, as you say, guys, having one here, one on the beach, that's my dream.
That's always nice.
Beach getaway.
Beach, yeah.
Also by the beach so I can move from the city and be there.
But I see it more in the long term because I know if I get to open our houses, it might
not be the same with my family dynamic.
Now I'm mostly in charge of this, so I have to be with someone else.
I'm not in a rush, but I would definitely love to.
You're still so young.
Still have some time.
You have time.
That's your favorite definition.
Still learning.
Long way to go.
Do you have a favorite beach destination that you love in Mexico?
My dad is from Puerto Vallarta.
I have family in Puerto Vallarta.
So that area, my sister lives close from there.
I used to leave.
I quit high school when I was young.
I went to Sayulita.
I was like a hippie living, surfing.
I can see that.
I was a part of it as well.
But now Sayulita has grown so much.
I don't know.
There's some panches next to it.
My sister lives a little bit southern from an hour or two hours from Puerto Vallarta.
There's some beautiful beaches that are not too big.
Now they're starting to grow a little bit more.
So maybe.
I had someone tell me if you want to see what Sayulita felt like 10 years ago.
Go to San Pancho now.
I went there and I was like, wow, this is super relaxed.
It's super chill, super relaxed.
But you can tell it's getting...
It's a bunch as well.
Yeah.
Both.
You see the prices going up.
Yeah.
So it's almost like you have to go to the next village now.
Exactly.
It's going to happen.
Yeah.
Now, Bobby was telling me about this famous sandwich which we're going to go hunt down
after we finish.
Tortadola.
Tell us about this.
Big biselavit.
Well, I think that's one of the attractions of Vallarta as well, the food, like the gastronomy
and the music.
If you want, if you can go a day to Tlaquepaque, that's how talking about San Pancho, if you
want to see how Guadalajara was like 50 years ago.
That's like the old traditional side of the city.
There's also, with that music, there's a lot of art galleries, good food.
Tortas ahogadas, you can find them all over the city.
Do you have a favorite one?
If you just have one when you visit Guadalajara, which one should you go for?
Because this is like a sandwich with like a meat topping.
Yeah, meat, it's like pork.
Pork.
It's ahogada, it's like singed in salsa.
So it's usually like super spicy sauce, now it's tomato, picante or not picante.
There's one very famous one, I don't remember the name, but it has a bicycle.
I think it's just called La Bicicleta.
Those are in central.
But the thing about Tortas Ahogadas, they don't change much the flavor from the basic
ones.
It's pretty similar.
There's also another thing called carne en su jugo.
You can only get it in Guadalajara.
Carne.
En su jugo.
Okay.
It's like a beef stew with beans and bacon.
You can only get it, well, it's from Guadalajara.
And the original place is not too far from here.
It's called Garibaldi.
Now this is a chain restaurant all over Mexico.
Carne es Garibaldi.
But the first one in the street is Garibaldi.
It's here.
It's good, man.
Nice.
Try it.
Any closing words for aspiring hostel owners?
It's kind of, if you're adventurous, if you like to travel, having a hostel, working
in a hostel is that, for me, this is where I grew up, this is where I was born.
But I feel like I'm constantly also like traveling because I get to see people from over the world.
It's amazing.
It's an amazing adventure.
I would just say that it's...
It's true.
I always like to say you can stay in the same place and the world comes to you every day.
Exactly.
That was what I was trying to say.
It's so very far.
It comes to you every day.
So there are some very good inspiring words for you aspiring hostel owners out there.
But Roberto, thank you so much from the Fulva Hostel.
Thank you, guys.
I appreciate it.
Come and check it out.
I'm going to go hit up these sandwiches and the fine delicacies of the town and I will
give a full report later on.
Thanks, guys.
Thanks, everybody.
Have a good day.
Bye-bye.